We’re Going to Keep this Box of Kleenex

Today the kids went to kindergarten, each child to his or her own classroom.
That’s right, 4 kids, 4 teachers, 4 classrooms.
And I lost it.
I could have held it together to drop off just one child, but trailing from room to room dropping off one child after another was more than I could take.  In fact, I’m tearing up right now just writing about it.  By the time we dropped off Thomas at the last room, I was just short of sobbing. 
I’m not sure why this is so hard.  THEY were fine.  The kids walked into their rooms and barely looked back.  They were fine with being separated from each other.  Their teachers were wonderful!  Their classmates looked great too. 
They were SO BIG.  And maybe that’s it.  My babies are so big now.  They’re in SCHOOL.  THEY GO TO SCHOOL!!!
I’m so excited for them, and I’m so proud of them.  And I know that they will love school, but…they’re my babies…and they’re just so big. 

And just in case you’re curious, this is what we took with us to school today:
8 boxed of crayons, 4 boxes of markers, 4 pairs of scissors, 24 glue sticks, 12 bottles of glue, 8 boxes of Kleenex, 4 bookbags, 24 pencils, 4 changes of clothes, and 4 bottles of hand sanitizer

So now I’m going to go to work and surround myself with teenagers and talk about Beowulf and hope that NO ONE asks me how kindergarten went because I really need to stop crying.

Memphis Trip!

Just as I was about to leave for work this morning, Jonathan decided he needed to be sick.  So I’m home instead of at school today!  He’s doing much better and hasn’t thrown up in the last few hours, so I thought I’d take a minute and blog!
This will basically wrap up the summer for us!  Finally!
In July we made one last trip, and I took the kids to Memphis to visit all the fam there.  We had a blast, as always!  We went bowling, played some arcade games, played on the slip n’ slide, hung out with the cousins, and bounced ourselves silly at the bounce house.  It was so much fun!  Pictures at the bowling alley were awful because I wasn’t allowed to use the flash, and the kids were just too fast for me to get any good ones at the bounce house, but here’s some shots of the slip n’ slide:

Cousin Kallen

Thomas

Cousin Kinley

Thomas and Zachary

Reagan

Thomas

Reagan and Kinley

Zachary

And don’t forget Baby Graham!  He’s getting so big!

It was a great way to start the end of our summer!  Up next:  SCHOOL!!!

VACATION!!

Over the 4th of July weekend, we took a vacation and went to visit friends in Virginia Beach!  It’s a 10-hour drive from here, so on the way there, we split the drive and spent the night in Greensboro, NC.
We had made reservations at a Days Inn there, but when we arrived, we quickly decided that we DID NOT want to stay there.  (Sorry.  We prefer that the locks actually work.)  So we relocated to a brand-new, super-nice Holiday Inn Express. 
The next day we arrived at Michele and Matthew’s house!  You may recognize them or some of their kids from pictures from Memorial Day weekend when we stayed at Matthew’s parents’ cabin.
We did actually go to the beach one day.  It was so much fun!  I wish we had been able to take more pictures than just this one, but it was really crowded, so we had to devote most of our attention to watching the kids.

The boys especially had a blast!  Reagan was a little wary of the waves, but the boys were all about them, jumping and splashing up a storm!

Reagan and Katie really hit it off!  Reagan LOVED having another little girl to play with!  I wish I had a picture of the boys playing with Andy!  They pretty much thought he hung the moon because he weapons AND Star Wars toys!
After church on Sun, we went to the Nauticus, a museum for all things naval and nautical, including an actual battleship you can tour!

Working the controls for the non-submerged submersible

Horseshoe crabs!

Who’s safer?  The kids or the sharks?

Exploring the battleship Wisconsin was really cool.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t!  But we still had a good time walking around and climbing up and down the ladders and looking at the massive guns!  There’s a tour of the inside too, but the kids weren’t old enough to go on that one.  I think you have to be 8.

Six hot, tired children! Jonathan, Zachary, Reagan, Katie, Thomas, and Andy

Before leaving, we stopped to make cards for our military to thank them for all they do!

Don’t forget me!

Yes, Baby Jack was there too!  And he was a real trooper!  So was his Mommy who carried his little sleeping self on her back for most of our sweltering tour of the battleship!

Monday was the 4th of July, and we mostly just took it easy and enjoyed each other’s company.

Still in our pajamas, but thoroughly enjoying the unexpected neighborhood parade!

Then it was time for the Slip n’ Slide!  Best $5 Daddy ever spent!

Jonathan

Zachary

Katie

Reagan

Andy

Thomas

I want to slip n’ slide too!

Then we drove ten hours home the next day.  Yuck! 

What a special trip this was!  It was so nice to spend time with old friends and watch all our kids play together!  We really appreciate Michele and Matthew having a boy and a girl so close in age to our kids!  Ha!  And we also appreciate their willingness to share their home with us for a few days!  Love you guys!